Slots advocates begin TV advertising campaign

Pro-slots television ads will begin airing today on Baltimore stations, marking another escalation in a hotly contested gambling referendum on the ballot this November. Steve Kearney, a spokesman for For Maryland For Our Future, the pro-slots ballot committee, called the purchase of airtime a "significant buy" but declined to provide specifics. Polls have shown solid support for slots in Maryland, and anti-slots activists are BRACing for a multimillion-dollar onslaught of pro-slots advertising, funded by gambling interests. Voters will decide next month whether to amend the state constitution to authorize 15,000 slot machines at five locations across the state.